On Sun, 2 Nov 2003 19:26:13 -0500, "John B."
wrote:

This may be just a stupid question, but I've never seen it asked before and
I don't know the answer.

I have an emachine (etower 667ir) that I just bought used (it's three years
old). It has only two memory slots built onto the motherboard that is
suppose to have the ability of handling up to a combined total max of 256mb
in PC100 SDRAM. I taking it for granted that number is a max of 128mb per
slot.

The machine currently has only one128mb stick installed, and I decided to go
ahead and expand the memory to the max
of it's limit by adding a second 128mb stick. This was when I had a thought
and came up with a question that I have never really seen asked before.

My question is what would really happen if I went against the rules and
placed two separate 256mb PC100 SDRAM sticks (combined total of 512mb)
inside the machine, exceeding the 256mb max limit.

Would the computer:
1. just not work and/or freeze up, or
2. just be able to access the first 128mb in each stick, or
3. just be able to access the first 256mb in the first stick and ignore the
second, or
4. nobody knows?

Anyway, it was just a thought, since a person can over clock a some
machines, it just seems a bit logical to be able to exceed the memory limits
to some level or degree.

In my experience, the specified memory limitation is often just what
the motherboard manufacturer was able to test before the model began
shipping. Your computer may only three years old but the motherboard
might have been designed much earlier, before 256-meg SDRAM was
common. They may be just covering their asses by saying you can't
exceed 256-megs total.

If it is a true limitation, my guess is that you will not be able to
boot the system and you will get memory error beeps -- just like
there's no memory in the system at all. Remember, I'm just guessing.

The good news is that trying larger SDRAM is very unlikely to damage
either the motherboard or the memory. Put it in there and see what
happens. Maybe you don't have the memory laying around and don't want
to speed money on chips that might not work. If you've got a good
computer store in your area that isn't fussy about returns, pay the
extra money and buy from them instead of online. Those restocking
fees can reach criminal proportions.

I should point out that some motherboards (particularly in name brand
computers) are EXTREMELY picky when it comes to memory. Some good
friends of mine have a Dell OptiPlex that they asked me to upgrade and
I've tried every stick of SDRAM I can find, both with their original
memory installed and without, and not a single chip will boot the
computer. Dell technical support says it's just regular old PC100,
but I'll be damned if I can make any other memory chip work besides
what came with the system originally.

Good luck and let us know what happens.

-Wuahn